Sir Verrick - Eminent Knight of the Order of Saint Michael and Priest of the Michalines

Malice - Confused Dark Druid

Ginny - Of the Library, our guide.

We were tasked with collecting some essences of pure magic from the Garden of All Elements and to have a diplomatic meeting with a High Enchanter of the Labyrinth of Xenos

We fought through some forest creatures to get to the Garden of All Elements, Which when casting within you appear to be in element at all times.

Once at the waystation we were met by some members of the Saldorians, who were just finishing up their stay.

They informed us that Pradoc Vay is no longer within their nation, and they do not know where he is but he has taken some of his deranged followers.

The ones loyal to Pradoc Mar claim to have seen the error of their past ways and are trying to atone for it by walking the lands and offering aid to those they meet, in whatever capacity they can.

If this is true and they do mean this well time will tell, but I have seen their practices first hand and it may take a while to convince me. I hope they do.

They have also stated that they are also no longer taking anyone into their nation and that they no longer wish to be at war with us thanks to our helping them to "see the light". Pradoc Vays men, however, will still most likely attack on sight.

It also transpired that the library, in their infinite wisdom, had sent along the Planar Codex, that wretched book and box that we acquired a few years ago as it may have been of some use. Granted it was, but I am still weary of that book! They also sent along an item that was supposed to protect the wearer from the effects of the book.

We were met by some members of the Wizards Concillium:

Jamic - Red College

Clarance - Yellow College

Martin - Green College

Darmate - White College

They are not happy with the Labyrinth of Xenos and want us to tell them to stop attacking them and other nations and taking all their magic items.

As they left, we were, surprise surprise, assailed by a LoX gathering group.

I then went to bed because I was pooped!

The Next day we awoke to HORDLINGS!!! HORDLINGS!!! Looks like the Mistweaver Moot that one of our new groups went out to hold was a success!

We were informed of a ritual to cast that would allow us to enter the Garden of All Elements.

Ginny had to read a section from the dodgy book and I cast the 4 main elements at ritual level, Earth, Air, Fire, Water, into the 4 corners of the door to the waystation and then lay magic of Ice and Steal, into 2 more corners, while Ichabod and Khandis took care of Lightning and Darkness in the other 2 corners.

This opened up a portal into the Garden.

Once in the Garden, it is kind of like Aether Town on speed! It is so bright and sparkly and magical!!

Of course while in there we were beset by elementals of all colours.

They always seemed to appear in groups of their own colour and never really appeared with any other colour elementals other than the purple ones. During our time there we met every colour of elemental so I'm not going to break it down but just leave it at that.

These Elementals also included ones that were purple! They were exceptionally magical and could suspend spells cast at certain levels and below. They could also cast any spell at will.

We met some significant Elementals in the garden, these included:

Armounar, He was an Earth elemental.

He would only speak to myself, Khandis, and Malice (I think, I don't think he liked Ichabod, I may be wrong and If I am, I'm happy to correct myself!)

He told us that only those of great strength could stand upon the Conflux plane. We couldn't decide if this was meant in strength of men, of arms, of belief and faith or of spirit strength. I'm sure we shall find out when we finally get there.

He told of us a focus that was close by.

I forgot to say, We need these foci (there are 3 in total) along with the dodgy book and something else that I cant quite remember right now, (Ichabod will know)to be able to get to the Conflux Plane.

I'm still unsure as to how we get back from the Conflux Plane but hey ho, I'm sure we shall figure that out.

The Foci was surrounded by elementals of different colours and the purple ones I mentioned earlier.

Once they were defeated Ichabod got the foci and carried it but it seemed to fire off some right dodgy magic effects sporadically. That was entertaining.

We then met another sentient elemental, this time a black one by the name of Yanitheris.

He told us, in a long drawn out round about way about the nature of the elemental planes and how the elemental lords kind of favour those who cast the opposite of their own colour, such as the Elemental Lord of Water would prefer me over a green caster because I cast red magic.

But then that theory could also be slightly flawed in my case due to my casting of 6 of the 8 colours of magic at varying degrees.

We came upon the second of the 3 foci, this one was protected by more elementals and a ritual that required a spell from all 8 colours of magic on it. This is why it's handy to have Khandis and Ichabod around to deal with the two I cant haha! The random effects from the foci became stronger and we decided to keep them apart and see how that would work out (not well haha)

When we got the final foci we had to pass a test.

We had to choose a colour of magic each and answer a question about it to the elementals satisfaction.

This went on for a while but we eventually passed and got the foci.

We returned back through the portal and back to the Waystation of the Garden of All Elements (confused yet? We certainly were!)

After we rested and replenished our stomachs, we were beset by a group of bloody forgotten!

We thought we were in for a right arse kicking but Nathan jumped out of nowhere and landed the most impressive unshackling of a spirit I have ever seen! It was like slow motion and so heroic!

In unshackling what we found out to be a Ghoul from this bloke that looked all impressive like, he came around and actually wanted to speak with us!

So we invited him in and sat and had a nice little chat!

Didn't see that coming did you?! No us neither but it did!

Turns out this guys name was Amrit Soldan of the Court of a Thousand Swords and they want our help.

Some of the old tower have been forced into what they have become by Calix Wraithspawn while others have followed Calix willingly.

Those that have been enslaved are trying to effectively form a coup against Calix and the Black Queen who conspiring to control as many of the old Court of a Thousand Swords leaders as possible.

In doing so they are doing this through either voluntarily or forcing spiritual embodiment upon them.

Not all the nations elders are possessed and those that aren't have gone into hiding as they aren't happy with whats happening at all.

It appears that The Red King is still alive and is being held somewhere well out of sight by Calix.

Amrit said that he thinks that those that aren't possessed would be more willing to actively stand against Calix if The Red King was free and could be seen as something of a figure head to rally around.

Amrit has gone back within the Forgotten lands as a kind of undercover agent.

We offered, on behalf of the Valley, not on behalf of the mystics (just thought I would make that exceptionally clear) to aid them where we could and to continue to unshackle as many of the embodied members as possible. So in the future if anyone goes out on missions and encounter the Forgotten, please try and unshackle them, not just kill them.

We then encountered a group of, well, dark shadowy cocks.

One of them, I didn't really see that much, managed to corrupt all my mana and force it out of my body with explosive results. Apparently the amount of bits of me and my magic that were flying around looked quite pretty but it took a while to recover from it and clean up the mess.

I think it may have been some kind of powerful Shadowmancer. The rest of the party tried to go after him but he got away.

Understandably I then got rather drunk and retired to bed.

Many apologies to all for my language and abuse after that incident.

No more gin for Kass on missions haha.

While I rested I was still capable of remembering that I was requested to cast a vision and did so while asleep.

Also throughout all the evening, having got all 3 foci together, even though they were being held by different people (Ichabod, Khandis and Myself) they were still going off and having random effects on us and those around us.

The next morning we got up and some pathfinders arrived over breakfast with a box to contain the foci and return it to the Valley for us.

There was some discussion over whether to send the book of douchebaggery back with them or not and knowing the power of the book I was very reluctant to do so. While discussing the issue with Ginny the book was sent off with the pathfinders who then returned to us to tell us that, surprise surprise they had been jumped by Kalid and they had lost the book, box and foci to them.

We rushed out to retrieve the items while I may have berated everyone on their ineptness and twatery.

We then ensured that they would get returned safely and promptly we sent the items back to the Valley.

The cooks, Rhiannan and Rosie, then asked us if wed do them a favour and go and clear out their herb garden for them. Apparently there was some horrible beasts destroying it and they couldn't deal with it themselves.

We had a quick visit from an enchanter from the LoX that informed us that it would be tonight we would have our diplomatic meeting with one of their High Enchanters.

During this talk, I got the result of my cast vision.

I saw:

I was high up in the air, looking down upon Orin Rakatha. I could see Golden Tendrils that eminated from near by the LoX lands and spreading out across the realm.

As I got closer, there were Black Tendrils that were eminating from a bubbling Blackness next to the Golden Area.

As I was getting closer and closer to the areas the tendrils came from I felt as though I was being watched and then the strangest thing, was almost like someone shoved me out of the vision, which is very strange and no-one physically did so as I'm warded whenever I'm casting.

The side effect of the vision left me feeling drained and hopeless, as though there was no point in anything any more.

Anyway we went and dealt with the herb garden and tidied it up for the cooks.

We then met some nomads that shouted at us, blamed us for everything. I didn't really pay that much attention to them at the time I'm ashamed to say.

We encountered more LoX collection groups and deranged animals.

Then the strangest thing happened.

These pink things with some wizards Concillium with them appeared and started attacking us and draining our essences. They also turned us against one another.

Think they were creatures of the blasted void.

Once we killed the pink gribblythings the WC seemed to come to their senses and as if by magic some more members of the WC appeared, in some sort of a panic saying that their nation leader was on his way and was not a happy bunny.

Chancellor Marius (pronounced Mar-ay-us he can get picky about that) turned up shouting and ranting and blaming us.

Now I may have forgotten to mention we had requested access to the I-box (the mistgate doodad that we created when we help blow up a tower) to gain passage to the Plane of Sleepless Dead in a few moons time.

It turns out that Calix Wraithspawn had done the same thing and gotten to it before us and when he opened the portal, a huge ton of void erupted inside the Concillium lands and destroyed part of it.

Now apparently Calix's fuckery was our fault and we had to do something about it.

We told them about the ritual of protection and cast one for those of them that were there and to try and help relations with them, Nathan and Khandis said that they would nip over there after our mission and help protect the rest of their nation.

That seemed to calm him somewhat and we apologised again and hoped that it wouldn't taint our good relations with them coz we get on alright with them and their mainly alright guys. Except Tarquin. He is a good bloke but I think he is lacking a few components of a ritual so to say.

We were met by High Enchantor Hephestos of the Labyrinth of Xenos.

Myself, Khandis and Ichabod had a rather indepth conversation with him.

It transpired that High Enchanter Weylon was speaking through him so the information we got was rather broken and difficult to understand. We didn't find this out for quite a while into the conversation when it appeared Weylon had had enough of speaking to us and broke his connection with Hephestos. More on this later.

I will report what I understand and garnered from our conversation, but to get the full extent of it I feel you will need to place all the information from all three of us together.

It appears that the reason that they have increased their collection squads is due to the fact that the Ikarthian Triangle (IKT) is broken.

It is said that we are rather responsible for this due to the destruction of the towers that acted as the barriers for the IKT, The Ikarthian Tower, The Lox Tower and the Temple of the Four Winds.

The mystics are not responsible for the IKT, the LoX are and it was created by Ikarus.

In its current form, the barriers cannot be fixed and needs to be recreated.

The IKT was created to keep out the mists, so there was a large area that could be traversed without fear of the mists or their hordlings.

The LoX use the Void to travel around in and noone has a deeper understand of the Void than them.

When Ikarus was alive, he kept all the status within himself and the chains that were used to keep the IKT in place were connected to him. Upon his death, the chains broke.

They used 3 beacons outside the Void to bolster the defences formed from the 3 beacons within the Void. If the Void is left as it is, it WILL consume the entire plane.

The beacons started to fail due to Dymtharis, the son of Dymwan.

It transpires that Dymtharis tried to use the Void to travel to the Plane of Sleepless Dead and caused the void to start to leak out through a rupture in the barriers which is currently impossible to stop.

The Dymwan then used the Void to travel to Maglore, which broke the beacons even more.

Then Burblegut Fantasia the Voidweaver got slung into the Void and manipulated the beacons to allow him to draw power from all 3 of the beacons.

The LoX have plans to try and remake the wards on the outside of the Void but it cannot be done while the Voidweaver is still inside of it.

To remake the wards, it will take 73% of all nations magical items and it will take 23 years to collect enough items to power the beacons.

They cannot use the power of the Void to do it as it has been corrupted beyond saviour.

The Void, they say isn't actually anything. It is the opposite of existence.

The LoX manage to traverse it as they have ships that are protected from it.

The Void sucks out all life. The use of the good sphere is extremely hindered within it.

The Darkness from within it will interfere with all that we know, Life, Magic, and Power.

It may be because of this that Black Magic is currently heightened due to the Darkness getting stonger as more is consumed by it.

It is unknown if the Darkness has any sentience to it.

To travel within the Void is the end of all life and everything. The LoX are able to do it as they technically do not have life, as they are constructs.

We asked the Enchanter about Xenos awakening, but he wouldn't give us any information at all upon the subject due to our meddling may cause the end of the planes and we have around 9 years before the plane is consumed by the Void if something is not done.

They impressed upon us the need to remove Burblegut Fantasia as soon as possible, and that they may be able to aid us in expelling him from the void for a short time.

They also said that we need to gather powerful people to gather essences to power the beacons.

It was asked if we could use something such as the elemental planes to power them but were told that if we did that then we could actually explode all of Orin Rakatha.

We got Weylons word that on the subject of their collection squads that they would adhere to whatever we said upon the matter, which was effectively, stop it.

However, I'm not sure if he can be trusted to do that.

Ichabod did ask if we could possibly borrow one of their boats to get us access to the Plane of Sleepless Dead.

The answer was categorically No.

Haha.

Once Weylon had severed his connection to Hephestos he was more forthcoming with his information about Xenos awakening.

It is certainly happening and Phinneas does have something to do with it, hence Weylons efforts to find Phinneas.

I am also starting to think that the Gold Tendrils from my Vision are something to do with Xenos, and the Black ones the Void.